06/15/20 06/15/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york of the , one epicenters of the pandemic in t the united states, this is democracy now! >> i h have bebeen doing thihis5 yes. is it getting someonene arreste? is it gegetting someone fired? s it a cheap stepping g wn? i know this isn't justice. amy: ptests intensify in

atlanta after a white police officer shotot dead an unarmed 27-year-old african-american man named rayshard brooks in the parking lot of a wendy's fast food restaurant on friday. the atlanta police chief has already resigned and the officer has been fired. we will go to atlanta for the latest. we will go t to atlanta a for te lalatest. then w we go to cacalifornia to speak with an africacan-american amy: we w will speak to young nw york activist was hospititalized after being violently shoved by

a new yorkrk police officer who was then charged with assault. wei asked him w why bececau were peacefully protesting and we were not the one through threw the bottle. it came from the other side. i was napping aggressive -- i was not being aggressive. and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, dedemocracynow.org, the quarante report. i'm amy goodman. protests intensified in atlanta after a a white police officer shot dead an unarmed 27-year-old african-american man named rayshard brooks in the parking rayshard brooks in the parking lot of a wendy's fast food restaurant on friday. the encounter was caught on surveillance camera and by a witness. a warnining to our listeners a d viewers, we are about to play graphic video of police violence. police approached brooks after he had fallen asleep in his car. the police questioned brooks, patted him down, and gave him a

breathalyzer test. during a scuffle, he grabbed one officers stun guns anand attempted to runun away. anotother officer r then shot bs in the back k two times. the officer, garrett rolfe, can then be hearard on a bodycycam o sayingng, "i got him." the e fulton couy memedical examaminerasas ruled brookoks' h a homicide. less than 24 hours after the shooting, atlanta's police chief erika shields resigned. the officer involved in the shooting was fired. fulton countnty district attttoy paul howard said -- "brooks did not seem to preseset any kind of threat to anyone, and so the fact that it would escalate to his death just seems unreasonable." this is chris stewart, a lawyer for ththe brooksks family. tasers are not deadly weapons. before we even hear fromom the lawyers who are going to say the same thing they always say, you cannot have it both ways. you can't say he ranan off witha

weapon that could kill somebody when you say it is not deadly.y. amy: protests continueued in atlanta throughout the weekend. on sataturday night, the w wen's fast food restauaurant was burnd down.. tasers s are not deadly weapons. in palmdale, california,a, calls are mounting for a an independet investigation into the death of 24-year-old robert fuller, a black man who was found dead, black man who was found dead, hanging from a tree in a park wednesday. city officials initially said he died by suicide, suggesting the

malcolm harsch's family says

cleveland, denver and indianapolis, are declaring racism a public health crisis. on friday, boston mayor marty walsh said he will reallocate $3 million from the police department's budget toward public health initiatives. and the minneapolis city council on friday unanimously passed a a resosolution to replace the pole department with a cocommunity-ld public safety system -- 18 days public safety system -- 18 days after george floyd was killed by police officer derek chauvin. minneapolis councilmember alondra cano said -- "we acknowledge that the current system is not reformable. we would like to end the current policing s system as we know it" in seattle, washington, socialist city councilmember kshama sawant is calalling for a section of downtown known as the capitol hill autonomous zone to remain permanently in community control. protesters took over several city blocks last week after the seattle police department

abandoned its capitol hill precinct and stopped trying to violently disperse marches. seattle's city council is set to debate two bills on police accountability -- one would ban chokeholds, the other would bar the purchase of tear gas and other so-called less lethal crowd control weapons. the number of confnfirmed u.s. deaths f from coronavirus is approaching 117,000 as infections continue to surge in large parts of the country. at least 21 states have seen increases in daily coronavirus cases, w with texaxas, florida,d california hitting new highs for daily ininfections ovever the lt two week a new forecast by the university of washington's institute of health metrics and evaluation predicts a second wave of the pandemicic will hit the u.s. in september, bringing the death tollll up to 170,000 by octotob. memeanwhile, the dirirector of e harvard d global healtlth instie predicts anonother 100,000 peope will die of f coronavirus in the u.s. by septptember.

inin brazil l the coronavirus dh toll has topped 43,000. it now has the second highest number of covid-19 deaths and cases in the world behind the united states. memeanwhile, china r reported is highest nunumber of dailily infectioions in monthshs on sun, raising fefears over a s seconde of the obreak. in beieijing, auororities have reimposed d lockdown meaeasures afteter a new clususter of cases emerged lalast week. the world health organization says the the world health organization says the pandemic is accelerating in africa, with the most affected countries being south africa, algeria, nigeria, egypt, and sudan. in yemen, medical authorities warn deaths linked to the papandemic couldld exceed war-related fatalities in n the port c city of aden.n. european countries continue to open up. french president emanuel macron announced sunday he is accelerating the lifting of restrictions, including allowing cafes and reststaurants nationwe

to fully reopen starting today. in britain, retail stores reopened t today. europepean cos back in the united states, in tulsa, oklahoma, new video has emerged showing a white police emerged showing a white police officer kicking a black teenager as he sat handcuffed in the back of a patrol car. then pulling the child from the vehicle and throwing him violently against the pavement. the 13-year-old boy was one of two african american teens detained by police june 4 for allegedly "improperly walking along a quietway" residential street with no sidewalk. this comes as a tulsa police major is coming under fire after denying systemic racism m in the police force and saying african americans probably should be shot more. listen carefully. this is major travis yates in an intervieiew with k kfaq. >> all of the research says we're shooting african-americans about 24% less than we ought to be based on the crimes being committed.

amy: president trump has rescheduled his first campaign rally since the pandemic started following widespread criticism after he announced last week he would hold it in tulsa, oklahoma, this friday, on juneteenth, a celebration of african americans' liberation from slavery. he pushed it back one day to tulsa's health department saturday. director said he wished the rally would be pushed back even further as new coronavirus cases have recently spiked in oklahoma and in tulsa county. in related news, thehe republicn national convention has been relocated to jacksonville, florida, after trump pulled the event from north carolina over governor roy cooper's refusal to allow for a packed arena during the pandemic. republican jacksonville mayor lenny curry said they are planning on a full arena although questions remain over how the city will accommodate the influx of visitors during the rnc. in 2005, cruise ships were brought into house visitors when

they hosted the super bowl. trump will accept the republican nomination on august 27, which will be the 60th anniversary of one of darkest days in jacksonville's history. on august 27, 1960, the ku klux klan organized a white mob -- mamany carrying ax handles -- to attack black civil rights attack black civil r rights protesters attempting to desegregate a white-only lunch counter. the day became known as ax handle saturday. last week under cover of night come the city quietly removed a confederate statues from the square where in observance will be held one mile away from the convention on the same day convention on the same day president trump will be accepting the nomination. and in the philippines, a court convicted award-winning journalist maria ressa earlier today in a cyber-libel case that's widely seen as politically motivated. ressa, founder of the independent news site rappler, has been a vocal critic of

has been a vocal crititic of president rodrdrigo duterte and his deadly drug war which has killed thousands. ressa and rappler employee has been a vocal crititic of president rodrigo duterte and his deadly drurug war which has killed thousands. ressa and rappler employee reynaldo santos could facece upo six years behind bars. this is mamaria ressa spspeakino reporters after the verdict was annoced. down that would have been unthinkable before this time. it has happened. tt in an anti-tror bill power,hese abuses of it means that you can be called a terrorist and without a warrant of arrest, you can be arrested for writing something. amy: to see our interviews with maria ressa about this case and her work, go to democracynow.org. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. today marks the 20th straight day of the nationwide upuprising against police brutality and

racism, sparked by the police killing of george floyd in minneapolis. as calls to defund the police growow, anotheher black man was kikilled by a white police offir on friday, this time in atlanta. 27-year-old rayshard brooks was asleep in his car in a wendy's fast food restaurant drive-through when a police officer arrived on the scene to ask him to move his s car. the encounter was caught on surveillance camera and by a witness. a warning to our listeners and viewers, we are about to play graphic video of police violence. the officer, devin brosnan, called for back-up and a second officer, garrett rolfe, arrived. the police questioned brooks, the police questioned brooks, patted him down with his assent, and gave him a breathalyzer test -- which he failed. rayshard brooks asked the officers if he could lock his car and walk to his sister's house a short distance away, saying to o them, "i can just go

saying to them, "i can just go homeme." instead, t the officers attetemd to h handcuff brooks, atat which point t he began to resist and y to escape. one of the officers, garrett rolfe, fired a a stun gun at brooks, who then managed to take the other officer's stun gun and run away. garrett rolfe then fired three gunshots at rayshard brooks, who was pronounced dead at the hospital l later that ninight. the autopsy showed the officer the e autopsy showed the officir shot brooks twice in the bacack. the fufulton county memedical examaminer has rulul brooks's' h a homicide. the autopsy showed the officer shot brooks twtwice in the back. the fulton county medical examiner has ruled brooks' death a homicide. less than 24 hours after the shooting, atlanta's police chief erika shields resigned. garrett rolfe, the officer who killed brooks, has been fired and the second officer was placed on administrative leave. the fulton county district attorney paul howard criticized the officer's use of deadly force, saying -- "brooks did not seem to preseset anany kind of threat to anyone, and so the fact that it would escalate to his death just seems unreasonable." the da is expected to announce this week whether any charges will be filed and is now considering murder charges. chris stewart, a lawawyer for te brooks family, s said the police

cannot claim a taser is a deadly weapon. >> case law here that tasers are not deadlyly weapons. so before we even hear from the lawyers are going to say the same old thihing they always sa, you cannot have it both ways. you can't say he ran off with a weapon that cocould kill someboy when you say it isis not deadly. i can say we want justitice, bui don't even know what that is. i have b been doing this for 15 yearars. i don't know what justice is anymore. is it gettining him arrrrested? is it getttting somebody fired? is it the c chief stepping down? i know thihis isn'n't just is, t is happening in society right now. happening in society right now. atlanta erupted in mass protest amy:atlanta erupted in mass protest over the weekend, as demonstrators shut down the freeway to demand justice for rayshard brooks. the wendy's where he was murdered was burned to the ground. rayshard brooks was the father of three daughters and one step-son. he was supposed to celebrate his 8 year-old daughter's birthday

with her on saturday, the day after he was killed by the atlanta police.. well, for more, we go to atlanta where we're joined by mary hooks. mary, welcome to democracy now! tookou talk about what place on friday? can you talk about the death of ofshard rayshard brooks and the response to it? this is a man who was asleep in his car in the parking lot of a wendy's. police were called. take it from there. codirectoror of southerners on w ground, which is part of the national bail out collective. >> thank you for having me. brookswe saw happen to mr. is unfortunanately somomething e continue to see repeated in our community all acrososs this country. whatat we sawaw, gentlemaman slg in his car, and escacalated to e poinint at which the police were called, ultimately, tururning ot to be e a scuffle that led to hs

death. ist we continue to see police being called in as first responders to scenes they should not be showing up fofor. what we continue to see is the police not being an occupying forcrce in our communityty anym. so the r response that we are seeing in terms of the protests certainly directed toward this theicular incident, but millions, the thousands ofof and incidences where police continue to show the institution of policing is rotten to the court. theirrse, peoplple are in righteous anger when they respond to the police violence that unfortunatetely across this it isy many pretendnd as if about one bad d apple. but we are very clear that it is about a rotten system that needs to be dismamantled, period. amy: i want to t turn to raraysd

brooks' wife tomika miller told -- we spoke to cvs sang thee officers need to be put away. shot it was my husband who them, he would be in jail. hehe would be a doining a life sentence. they need to be put away. thoughlike even everythingng happened so fast, t did not take n nothing but a spt second for the ever officer to say, hey, calm down. down.ld he couould have told his partne, calmlm down. all of them need to be sentenced the same way. amy: that is rayshard brooks' wife. now w let's go to atlanta mayoyr keisisha lance bottoms speakingt a news conference saturday. >> mother maybe debate as to whether this was an n appropriae use of deadly force, i firmly believe that there is a clear between what you can

do and what you should do. i do not believe that this was a justified use of deadly force, and have called for the immediate termination of the officer. amy:y: mayor bottoms alslso announced the resignation of atlanta a police chief erika shields. >> chief erika shields has been a solid member of apd for over two decades and has a deep and abiding love for the people of atlanta. and because of her desire that atlanta be a a model of what meaningful reform should look like across this country, chieff shields has o offered to immediately step aside as police chief so that the city may move forward with urgency in rebuilding the trust so desperately needed throughout our community. amy: that t is atlanta mayor shields

shields and she is talking about the resignation of the police chief of atlanta, who not only was dealing with -- was overseeing the department with the death of rayshard brooks, sceneso -- the incredible of these two students from historically black colleges, from spelman and morehouse being tasered byby the atlanta police. immediately, two of them were justed -- well, six were charges were brought against them and two were fired. if you could first talk about rayshard brooks s and the respoe of the police chief and then what happened with the students. put it in the bigger picture of police violence, mary. >> i think what we're sayining n the casese of mr.. brooks and shields resigning, i think we are to see a slew of polilice chiefs begin to leaeave theirir post, if you will. i think because many of them know that transformation is on the rise, that transformation is

inevitable. many do not have what it takes to carry thahat water come into curious into a different way -- carry us into a different way of dealing with safety in this country. her to i it was right forr do so. and i think we need to continue to l look at who else needs to move from these seats of powower so folks who h have different vision have -- actually can see the possibility of what happens possibibility of what happens when we defined the police a and possibility of what happens when we defined the police and -- defund the police and can see ththe possibilities. defunding is not going to happen overnight. we know that folks have to be committed to a long-term process of changing the waway in which e rely in the way in which we depend on cops and all the

institutions that harm like people in this country. let me go to stacey abrams, former leader of georgia's house of representatives speaking on abc's "this week" on sunday. her name is being floated as a possible vp pick for joe biden, who has stated his opposition to calls of defunding the police. she was asked if defunding the police was necessasary. >> i think w we are beining dran ininto this false choice ididea. the reality is, w we need two thinings. we need refoformation of how police o officers do their jobo, how law enforcement d does its job. i sererved in the state lelegislatature for 11 yearsrs d served on thehe committee of purview. the committee o of purview. i i took actioion toncrerease pe accountabibility, to address the isissues of crcriminal j justice reform. bubut i al k know we have toto e a transfsformatition of hohow ww e role of f law enforcement, how we view the construcuct of pubuc safetytyand h how we invest not how we invest not

onlyly in the movement we need o do to protect us but t the worke need to protect and builild our communities.s. how we invest not only in n the movement we need o do to o protect t us but the woe need to protect and build our communities. amy: y your respononse, mary h ? >> i thinknk -- i agree at transfsformati is crititical ani think k for folks to continue to propose reform as a process by process byt which to get there have either chosen to ignore what is happening in our reality, the history that also informs our rage and righteous anger, so i think beyond the reform, we are no longer buying that. we are no longer buyuying that. folk go into political office will intended wiwith a lot of grgreat intenti. however, officers, no matter their intention, no matter their bound, they are tied and to a system that by training is folk go into political office will intended inherentlyrdered - -police iss rotten. anything less than a

conversation on how we shrink that institution until it is no longer legitimate, that is the conversation. anything else is an insult to our susuffering. of mediay hooks, a lot has covered what happened to rayshard brooks. the video is long, the video.lance now there is videocam from the police officers. it goes on for well over half an hour. he is talking to the police officers. he was assenting to everything about the background, the breath -- pat down, the breathalyzer. down, the breathalyzer. then they try to handcuff him and that is when he gets into a scuffle. what is not typed about as much is look at that time -- we're talking about just this friday, more than two weeks after the death of george floyd -- massive protests and thousands of cities, towns across this country. certainly in atlanta as well. the terror that people feel around the police.

so he lived through all of that and then they are handcuffing him behind his back after he has spoken to them calmly, talked to them about his kids birthdays and everything else, but he is still being handcuffed behind his back. exactly what happened to george floyd. people don't talk about the terror that people feel of police. why someone would up and run. think -- again, i think it is often times manany peoplen this countryry failed to again, you because know the h history t that comest of slave patrol. we undererstand the way in whihh they have been brought in as an voice -- force in our community that we have seen decades and decades, generations of call for police violence to stop, a call for police to

change their tactics, to not use force.ve and none of that has gotten us anywhere. it behooves me when people can watch an incident like this and where two police officers had complete where two police os had complete autonomy to make the decision -- the gentleman asked for a ride home. they could have called a lyft. 70 options were available but they chose to not step into a different level of humidity. they chose to not see this person as a person with family and life mattered and they went from zero to 100. that shows you thahat even on a that even on a simple call like that word should have clearly been hey, let's just get you home so you will be ok, can escalate. i choose, as many of the foci no, walk through our strtreet aredown the

street are afraid. i have been abused by the police before. i'm vevery clear. people w want us to etetend the police are not whoho ty y are, that the g g.i. joe's s are not coming i into our community. [no audio] amy: failed to rise to the challenges. you are in atlanta where rayshard brooks was just killed. population led by an african-american mayor, police chief was a woman. can you talk about this kind of politics?

i think it is super ininteresting. atlanta is not taken charge on what it means to address the systemic violence. here.is an elite class beingngts atlanta from [indiscernible] beieing [indiscernible] atlanta has one of the highest income gaps in this cocountry. you're either well off or you are struggling period.d. city officials who oftentimes will parade around, talking about -- the celebrate what happens [indiscernible]

that the same level l of desire. why many big reason continue to showow their ininadequacy. that not been able to address what is happening and clean up the mess of the war on n drugs s created. many of those black mayors in the suit come out of a legacy of, they were responsible and make horrible decisions in the 1990's -- and i'm speaking specifically to the crime bill, that has caused so muchh damage. need anthat is why we intergenerational movement. that is whwhy we need electedd officials who exit have a deep investment and caring for young people, a younger generation are calling for.

if they cannot align their power and their interest with what is andg called for right now, they actually have to move around because they're doing more damage than good right now. amy: mary hooks, thank you for being with us, codirector of southerners on new ground, which is part of the national bail out collective and the movement for black lives. mary is an organizer of national black mama's bail out day. talking abouteen the escalation, police escalation of violence after they came upon a man, rayshard brooks, who was asleep in his car in a parking lot. within an hour, they killed him. when we come back, we willll spk with a 27-year-old african-american man, just like rayshard brooks, but he trained san jose pololice about racial bias. groince shot him in the groin a rubber

with a rubber bullet during a recent protests. stay with us. ♪ [music break] amamy: this is demococracy now!, demomocracynow.o, ththe quarante report.. i'i'm amamy goodman.

we turn now to look at p police violence against protesters whoo have taken to the streets following the police killings of george floyd. rammed byave been cars and truck, suffered broken limbs. we're going to san jose, californrnia, where police shot their own anti-vice trainer in the groin with a rubber coated steel ball bullet, bursting his testicle. old,ck sanderlin, 27 years african-american, spent years training police cadets in san jose about how to avoid implicit biased toward people of color. he was shot while taking part in a protest. garcia said -- "has been a real leader in our

communities' efforts to reduce biasas and discrimination throuh dialogue" and vowed to investstigate, but garcia has ao defended the use of force by his officers during the recent protests. derrick sanderlin joins us n now from san jose. we welcome you to democracy now! you are an anti-vice trainer with the future of justice training. center is a community organizer. thank you so much for being with us. i am so sorry for what happened to you. go back to that day, to the protests come after the killing of george floydyd, and tell us what happened? set the scene for us.s. >> absolutely. we were statarting to gatather t city h hall. i have to say, i really wasn't sure how many people w were goig to be there. i think following t the death of person in ameririca,in the protesest in san josose wase of the biggest i have everer s n

here in this city. it was beautiful to see. it was very peaceful. even as we started to caususe se , cars werein traffic honking along with us and routine us on. -- rooting us onon. we block the freewayay which i s whenen police e started d to sh. as tensions started to rise, there was increasingng need to quell the tension between the police officers and community members. partrticulararly when on our w y particularly when on our way back to city hall, the police department decided to sort of follow behind us in a line of police officers and start firing rubber bullets into the crowdwd.

i saw old women being shot. kids being shot. towarddtinue to push city hall. amy: tell us what you did. toward city hall.l. amy: tell us wt t you d. you put your hands up and walked between -- >> yes. precisely. as i was watchining the young woman n get shot by rubber bullt didirectly in the chest, i could not watch anymore. up and walkedds sisideways over ththere as theye searchching around, a and askedm to please not t do this.s. of, you know, at bay for the momoment. , "pleasese don't do cop came upup from

behind them m and pointed his st gugun right at me anand said "m" i kinda of pulled my sign over fear,r, and with a lot t of just kind of shaking my head no. cop came up from behihind themhe said, "youou'reo move?"?" he fired his riot gun.. i i did not t realee until impac that he d been aiming at t my groin. yeah. i fell to the grground but luckily, there were a couple of people who i knew were standing nearby when everything unfolded, and i was likely taken away. from hararm's way y after that. amy: so you u were takenen to te hospitalal? i actually did not go to theto hospital that night, even though it was the worst pain that have

everer experienced. i had d ice and d i thought, i l sleeeep it off. these things happen. worse..pain got the cocondition got worse. i called my doctor a and they ake a radidioly test and if things were worsrsei go into the hospital. n night.t s saturday theyey discovevered thatat thera strong possibibility that t i hd had ruruptur testicle.e. i went into emergency surgery night andnd went home sunday morning. amy: and what is your prognosis? what did the doctor say? >> after the emergrgency surger, there was a ruptured testicle right before ththe surgery, he said, if it is ruptured, there is a posossibily kids can n bekids

complicated. your bodody can create an n anty agagainst yourself.. you won't know until you t try , possibibility thatibility that you may y not be a able to have children. amy: have you been talkingng wih your partner about having kids? >> yes. a couple of weeks before the protest, we were sort of plananning when we're going t to start thininking about havining kids.. definitely, a desire. about the san ask jose police chief eddie g garcia pepersonally calling you after u were shot and then releasing the statement saying that you had been a real leader in our community's efforts to release bias and discrimination through dialogue. "i shirt him we will be ," hetigating this incident said. however in the past he has defended his officers conduct an san jose police compared

policing the streets during protest of being "war zone." an fact that you are trainer of the san jose police department, can you explain the work you have beenen doing for years there? >> yes. to a a thing called thehe bebeloved community. we are community organanizers. one of the particular things we do in our worork for police accoununtability iss t talk to e police officicers aboutut the cultural and historical historyy of policing that theyey step in when they put on their uniforms. so, there a are also opopening what we like to call a bank accountnt at the communitiy bankers trust. depositeither m make a

for withdrawals from that y youunity bank of usust but have to make thahat choice youou have to o make that choice consciously. whether r you like it or not, folks are engaging with you based on their historical and cucultural c context wh h policg and law enforcrcement. doo is essentially what we officers who have to retake e the class, whwho h't taken the classs in the pastst. amamy: did youou know any of the officers on the line? >> unfortunately, i could not pick them out.t. amy: wherere they fully covered withth shields? >> they did not have the right shields, but they didid havehe rightht shields, but they did have thehe face -- plastic face masks. unfofortunately, some have beenn the force for years and some of them i'm am not familiar with,

but -- amy: your response to the police chief calling you directly, police chief garcia, rather than -- the mayor calling you directly and the police chief calling the area of warar zone? >> unfortunatelyly, the conversation that the community is ifn having out here iss our public officials perceive what happened on thehe 29th, 3 , then it sortr z zone, a assumes t that our community- that the wars between the , whichnity y and the e police is a strange w way to papaint te community that you are called to

serve. i respect ththe chief a lot ---- amy: i miss ididentified, thee cheaeapest eddie garcicia? >>hat't's right. i do respect chief garcia and respect the mayor iti do is cler thisis isn't workrking. to continueppoininting anything leless than that''s try toto me forwarard. amy: what do youou demand of the police department t department right now? over the years, with a lot of things thahat have happened d ie city, i think it is high t time that we listen to the families that have experienenced that a d defund the police department.

fromm -- internal investstigations. o order toke this in ininvest in n the commmmunity, e better school programs, have strengtheneded civilian oversigt that is independent from the polilice d department, and just really -- i i am asking my city asking my city officials to listen to their community when we say we need to reimagine public safety. amy: and your r thoughts when yu heard d that rayshard brooks had bebeen killed now in atlantata,e you,u, a 27-year-old african-american man? serioiouslyroroke my heartt , especially given n some of f e words from kikiller mike -- i've never been to atlanta.

been toto atlanta. i don't know anynything abt atlantnta,ut i've heardrd. it is difficult to hear. what is even more difficulty here is the death of christophpr booker,, the a alleged lynchchi. i grew u up in victorvillele, s state.a is my i i am familiar with h the prese bias.t devastating i hope this wawakes the countryy upup. amy: derek, thank you so much for being withamy: derek, thankh for being with u us and also jut to clarifyfy the misidentified them, the police chief is eddie garcia and the police captain is jason dwyer who called the protest zone award zone. you forsanderlin, thank being with us, antibias trainer with "future of f stice training" and a san jose cocommunity organizer. ththank you for joinining us. whenen we come back, i new york

police officers charged witith officers charged with assault, criminal mischief, violently shoving a 27-year-old wowoman at a recent protest against police brutality. she was hospitalized with a concussion. we will l speak with doununya zr and her attorney. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: t this is democracycy now!, i'm amy goodman. a warning to our viewers, this next story contains graphic fofootage of police violenence. footagof policviolence we endnd today's show here in nw yorkity, whe police officer vincend'd'draia habeenen chargegewith assault, criminal mischihief, harassment, , and mischief, harassment,nd mecing after video showed m violtly shovg a peaceful ototesteto t theround d he outed an expleti a and a mimisonisticiclur. 20-year-old doun z zayeras a at a prprott agaiait police brutality on when she asked may

brutality on when she asked may 29 officer d'andraiaia why e was ordering her to get out of the street. he responded by violently shoving her r to the pavement. a bystander filmed as she was shot and then rolled onto her side. she suffered a seizure and was hospitalized with a concussion. for more we're joined by that young woman. dounya zayer joins us from here in new york, accompanied b by oe of her attorneys, tahanie aboushi, w who is a civil l rigs lawyer and candidate f for manhattan district attorney. welcome you both to democracy now! dounya zayer, i'm so sorry for what happepened to you.. thisw have all seen horrifying video, once again, as this police officer shoves you to the ground, forcing you against the curb, your shoes fall off. describe that day for us. what was taking place? um, i went to the protest on friday night to show my support toward black lives matter, against police brutality. the protest was peaceful.

the cops were stampeding toward the um, crowd. i noticed peaceful protesters were getting hurt. it was a scene straight out of a horror movie, something you would not expect. i knew how important was to record things like that so i took my camera out and started recording. there is a video on twitter of whenecording that i took i'm running backwards in the direction the officers are telling us to go to and trying

to record while going backward. block myself, i could see out of my peripheral vision he shot me very hard to o the ground. to show thatg video for a particular reason. we don't like to repeat video, but i want people to bebe able o see as he pushes you, he is not said. as you he is s next to a commanding officer. anand many others walk past yous this h happened in the san luis happppen with h martin gugino in said. he is nenext to a commanding ficer. and manybuffalo. it lookelike a an entirere battalion walked pt him and no one helped.. a police officer pushes you down. you have all ofhese other ofcers. behind him is a commanding behind him is a commanding officer and they do nothing to help you. can you talk about what happened to you after? head, i wasit my very confused and in a lot of pain. the impact was hard. other protesters were trying to

help me get up and they walked up and they walked me to nearby stairwell like five feet away. i lose my memory at the stairwell, but that is when i had the seizure. i had the seizure about five minutes after hitting my head. i got sent to the hospital in an ambulance. it was a hard impact. it was unprovoked and not expected. definitely not necessary. he call me a name -- he wanted to hurt me. he was angry. i don't know why, maybe has something against women, against people protesting -- something. but i was backing away from him and did not do anything to have anany, a name and then follow through by injuring me.. amy: i want to bring tahanie aboushi into the conversation, civil rights attorney. can yoyou talk about the significance o of this video --dounya zayer, we asked you

before if you minded if we play this. can you talk about the effect ththis has on you, your feeling about the significance of it? it is unusual. it is unusual, there are so many things going on, that this was captured. >> have a love/hate relationship with the video. is important for videos to be taken even when they're difficult to watch because we live in a system that does not accountable. it takes everything in our power to hold them even 25% accountable compared to regular person. it is only if you have 100% 100% proof -- you have to have a video. they will never, ever, ever punish a police officer for doing wrong unless you have a video. so i am grateful the video was taken. i'm am gratefully raises awareness. is helping met

attempt to get justice on the situation. but the other aspect of it is there is a video of me getting it andd people can watch laugh at it, they can enjoy watching me get hurt, they can have their own opinions on it. it is difficult to have other people try to tell me one thing or another regarding -- it is difficult to watch it. i can't watch the video. especially the fact it has gone as viral as it has. i am grateful and getting an justice through the video. i'm scrolling through social media and try not to find myself being assaulted and it just shows up right there? it is not enjoyable. amy: which is why we asked you ok to run yours

video. and horrifying as it is. can you talkhi, about the significance of what happened to dounya zayer and your years of representing people? >> i have been doing this work, fighting against the use of excessive and deadly force for over 10 years in new york city. i know the nypd patrol guide very well and how it plays out in the course -- video is so important because it takes a lot to force nypd not only to cooperate and give up identity of the officers to hold them accountable, but it becomes a he said/she said. and we understand in our city, the word of the officer is always taken with much more weight than that of the civilian, especially when the also have the power to arrest. so t the arrest t becos a questn of integrity for thehe victim. it is very difficult to piecece

out in court which can stretch ouover a year or two y years time. but haviving the video for thehe clearlyto seeee memorializes what happens. actions of the actions of theows officer and allows us to hold them accountable. and to pause it in certain moments and ask, what could you have done differently here? or, what was the thought or, what was the thought process here? consider,, we don't know what happened, it was dark -- all of these distractions that take away from holding an officer accountable, which is what the city has shied away from doing. but i have dedicated my career the holding law enforcement accountable and getting the city to face these questions from families and from people like expected to go now

home and i like nothing happened and live with ththis trauma for the rest of their life. amy: what youu what to see hapan rightt now? the officer has been charged with various levels of menacinig harassment and assault. the commanding officer, as far as farow, as i know, has not been charged, is that right? >> around the commanding officer, feel like the transfer was inappropriate. moving the problem to another does not solve the problem. he clearly is not fit to hold a position where he is supposed to be preventing his officers from doing the wrong thing. a commander who could watch his lower officers commit a crime be ao nothing should not commander. he should be fire. he should lose his position. if anything -- it is difficult to go that far, but he should also be charged. if you're an officer and you witness an assault, then you are aiding in the assault, as far as

i'm concerned. amy: and various legislative bobodies are s starting to say f you dodo not hold ananother offr accountable, you, too, will be charged. >> exactly. with vincent d'andraia, i don't understand -- he was suspended. that --hey continue what does a suspension solve? him being able to come back and do exactly what he did to me again in the future. there should be no second chances with officers. it is not acceptable. we can't normalize the way they have been treating us in the way they treat black people, way worse. it is not normal. we can't justify it. you can't make excuses for it. they have to be held accountable immediately. -- fired.nsion amy: we have to go but i want to

thank you so much for being with us, dounya zayer is an activist was shot by police. tahanie aboushi is a civil rights attorney and candidate for manhattan district attorney 's demand police be held accountable. . so.

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